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FLORA AND FAUNA
Couple of South African leopards on Malawi mission
by Staff Writers
Majete Wildlife Reserve, Malawi (AFP) Dec 30, 2011

Elusive snow leopards caught on camera
Kabul, Afghanistan (UPI) Dec 30, 2011 - A remote camera in the mountains of Afghanistan has captured a rare photograph of a snow leopard mother and her cub, a U.S. wildlife conservation group says.

Photographs of the elusive animals are hard to come by, the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York said, so a picture of both a mother and her cub is all the more special.

The image of the two animals, snapped on a craggy peak in Afghanistan's Sarkund Valley, is the first such photo obtained since the WCS began work in the region, the group said in a release Friday.

The WCS has been conserving wildlife in Afghanistan since 2006 with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Snow leopards are native to South and Central Asia and live in rocky mountain ranges between 9,800 and 18,000 feet.


"The leopards won't like that!" jokes ranger Fyson Suwedi as his pick-up truck rattles along the bumpy road that leads from the airstrip to Malawi's Majete Wildlife Reserve.

In the back are the two special passengers, transported by plane from South Africa across 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) on a mission to repopulate the Majete.

The leopards -- a male and a female -- have behaved during the journey to their new home, where they will hopefully reproduce.

Proclaimed in 1955, the Majete reserve suffered extensive poaching which severely depleted its animals' numbers.

But a conservation group took over management after a 2003 deal with Malawi's government. Since then over 2,500 antelopes, elephants, buffalo and rhino have been reintroduced.

This leopard operation's twosome were caught in rural South Africa after their hunting spree wreaked havoc on farmers' ostrich populations.

At the Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in northeast South Africa, where the leopards spent a few weeks before the move to Malawi, the morning of their journey they are quickly sedated, inoculated against rabies and cat flu, washed, and put into cages.

A few volunteers from the centre -- actually tourists who pay to work with the exotic animals -- are helping the operation.

"The male is 22 months old and the female 17. Unfortunately we'll have to wait a year or two before they can reproduce," explains Brian Jones, the wildlife rehab's director.

But head veterinarian Andre Uys believes the felines are older, as much as five years for the male and two for his future companion.

After the leopards are moved into their separate cages the journey can finally begin. The first stop is a nearby airfield, then an hour's flight to Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport, where the last administrative details need to be tied up.

All the paperwork however was not ready on time even though the African Parks Network, the non-governmental organisation that runs Majete, started the process seven months ago.

"We cannot afford any further delay because the animals are going to cook (in their cages). It's hot in here," an impatient Uys says on his cellphone.

A whole range of documents is needed to transport the animals out of the country: both veterinary services and customs' environmental protection management have to authorise the move.

Then the operation needs the stamp of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the international animal trade policing body.

But finally the Cessna airplane takes off from Nelspruit, only four hours behind schedule. Flying over western Mozambique, three-and-a-half-hours later it touches down on the private runway of a sugar factory near Majete.

The last papers are signed, and the two cages are loaded onto the pick-up truck for the last stretch to the reserve.

The leopards have been awake for a while now and are calm, though they growl at each other from time to time.

"They shouldn't have been fed yesterday. They should have been starving to travel," says Uys regretfully.

Usually leopards respond better to the drugs if they do not eat before traveling, but these two had a rabbit "snack" for dinner the previous evening.

At the reserve the endangered big cats are freed at last, but kept apart in enclosures.

"They are under stress. If they were released together now they would kill each other," says Uys.

This will be their home until mid-January while they recuperate from the journey. When they are set free after that, they'll probably hang around the area for another week, then take off to explore the 700 square kilometers (270 square miles) of their new domain.

Each wears a collar that sends a satellite signal so park officials can track their movements.

Perhaps they will meet the other two leopards from South Africa that were released in October.

And more big cats are coming. Next July, lions will arrive in Malawi to do their bit to repopulate the Majete reserve.

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Cameras show 35 rare rhinos in Indonesia: official
Jakarta (AFP) Dec 30, 2011 - Hidden cameras in the jungles of Indonesia's Java island have captured images of 35 critically endangered Javan rhinos, including five calves, an official said Friday.

The forestry ministry set up 44 infrared cameras from January to October this year in the rugged Ujung Kulon National Park on the western-most tip of Java.

"The cameras captured the images of 22 male and 13 female rhinos. The five calves consisted of one female and four males," director of biodiversity conservation at the forestry ministry Bambang Novianto told AFP.

He said the discovery of the five calves "shows that its population continue to develop", but an imbalanced sex ratio could threatened the rare species.

"There are more male rhinos than females. We are worried that it will create dangerous competitions among the male rhinos in getting a partner. They may end up in a deadly fight," he said.

To boost conservation efforts, Novianto said his ministry was finalising a rhino breeding sanctuary in an area of 38,000 hectares inside the 122,000-hectare (300,000-acre) national park.

"It will be easier for us to monitor its population so that the breeding process would be more effective," he said, adding that such programmes will help the government to reach a target of 70 to 80 Javan rhinos by 2015.

The Javan rhino is distinguished from African rhinos by its small size, single horn and loose skin folds.

Around 44 Javan rhinos are believed to live in Ujung Kulon, a rare patch of wilderness on one of the world's most densely populated islands.

They form the world's only viable population of the critically endangered species capable of reproducing.

Asian rhinos have been driven to the brink of extinction because their horns are highly valued in traditional Chinese and Korean medicine, although most countries in the region have banned the trade.



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FLORA AND FAUNA
How bacteria fight flouride
New Haven CT (SPX) Dec 30, 2011
Yale researchers have uncovered the molecular tricks used by bacteria to fight the effects of fluoride, which is commonly used in toothpaste and mouthwash to combat tooth decay. In the Dec. 22 Online issue of the journal science express, the researchers report that sections of RNA messages called Riboswitches - which control the expression of genes - detect the build-up of fluoride and act ... read more


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